Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz

LONDON — Now was the time. If Jannik Sinner, who is much younger and hits harder than Novak Djokovic, was going to beat Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon semifinals on Friday, he would have to make a huge comeback right away.

Djokovic knew it. Sinner knew it. The 15,000 or so people who were watching on Center Court knew it.

After winning the first two sets, Djokovic was behind 5-4 in the third, and he made a mistake with his forehand as he served, making the score 15-40. Sinner had two chances to finally break. He had two chances to really take a set. Djokovic made a mistake, which made some people in the stands cheer. Djokovic made fun of the noisemakers by clapping with his stick and the ball, and then he gave them a thumbs up.

He can back up anything he says like this. Djokovic hasn’t lost at the All England Club in a long time. Or, for that matter, at any Grand Slam event. So, he took the next four points quietly to win the game, then looked at the crowd and made a joke of wiping away a tear. Twenty minutes later, the match was over, and Djokovic had won 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) against Sinner. This gave him a step closer to his eighth Wimbledon title, which would tie the record, and his fifth in a row.

“The third set could have gone his way,” Djokovic said. On Sunday, Djokovic will play No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz for the title. “There was a lot of pressure,” she said.

Alcaraz showed off all of his skills when he beat No. 3-ranked Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 on Friday to reach his first final at the grass-court major event. He won 17 of 20 points when he served and volleyed.

While Djokovic, who is 36 and from Serbia, is trying to win his 24th Grand Slam singles title, Alcaraz, who is 20 and from Spain, is trying to win his second. In September, Alcaraz won the US Open.

“What can I say? Alcaraz said of Djokovic, “Everyone knows what a legend he is.” “It is going to be very, very hard. But I’m going to fight. I’ll have faith in myself and think I can beat him here.”

Since 2017, no one has been able to beat Djokovic at Wimbledon. Since 2013, no one has been able to beat him at Centre Court.

Djokovic saved all six of Sinner’s break points to get to his ninth final at the All England Club. He did this by serving his way out of trouble. It’s also his 35th Grand Slam final, which is more than any other man or woman in the history of tennis.

Even though he is a great returner and a great defender — he would always run, lean, and stretch to get to a ball that would extend a point until Sinner made a mistake — Djokovic’s serve might be the part of his game that he has improved the most over the course of his career.

This was clear on Friday, and it has been for the last two weeks: Djokovic has won 100 of his 103 service games and stopped 16 of his 19 break points in his six matches so far in the tournament.

“When things were tough, he played very well. Not missing,” Sinner said. “He’s that guy.”

The difference in age between Djokovic and Sinner, who was 21, was the biggest between men’s semifinalists at Wimbledon since the Open era started in 1968. Djokovic would be the oldest person to win Wimbledon since the first year that pros were allowed to play.

“I feel like 36 is the new 26, I guess,” Djokovic said. “It’s great.”

Sinner is the one who hit serves at up to 132 mph and pounded one fault so hard that it sounded like it might have broken the speed reading board in a corner of the arena. Worse for Sinner, he then made another mistake in his next service game, which put him behind 2-1 in the second set.

Even though Sinner is very good, he didn’t make Djokovic any more angry than chair judge Richard Haigh did.

In one game, Djokovic had a break point, which he lost, and tried to fight, but Haigh called him for hindrance because he yelled for a long time while the ball was still in play. Moments later, Haigh warned Djokovic for letting the timer on his serve run out.

“It was a very hard game for me to get through and stay alive. “It was very important,” Djokovic said. After watching a video, he thought the “hindrance” call was wrong. He said that Haigh needed to “recognize the moment a little bit more” instead of giving the time warning. “I’m glad I didn’t lose my cool.”

Djokovic did win, and he kept trying to join Roger Federer as the only men to have won eight singles trophies at Wimbledon. Nine times, Martina Navratilova won the women’s title.

Djokovic won his 22nd major title at the Australian Open in January. He won his 23rd major title at the French Open in June. His Wimbledon shoes have a small “23” marked on the side because he beat Alcaraz in the quarterfinals.

If Djokovic wins on Sunday, he will be the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to try for a calendar-year Grand Slam at the US Open in August.

Since it was raining outside and the main stadium’s sliding roof was closed, the grass was wet and slick during Djokovic vs. Sinner. Sinner fell on the first point, while Djokovic fell on the third. Both of them kept getting hurt. They hit the bottoms of their shoes over and over with their rackets to try to get the grass and dirt out.

When Sinner played against Djokovic, the level of competition went up a lot. Before Friday, he had not only never played a seeded player, but he had also played people who were ranked 79th, 85th, 98th, and 111th.

No one in the 50-year history of electronic men’s and women’s tennis ranks has been No. 1 for more weeks than Djokovic, who is now No. 2. But that number doesn’t show how good he is right now.

This was Djokovic’s 46th major match, while this was Sinner’s first, and that was clear when it mattered.

Last year at the All England Club, Sinner was very close to getting to that point. He led Djokovic by two sets in the semifinals, but Djokovic came all the way back to win in five.

This afternoon did not need that kind of work. Djokovic would never have let it get that far.